Central New Yorkers help fund fresh water project in South Sudan

View full sizeProvided photoClement Kuek, a "Lost Boy" who is from the village of Ariath, has been on a mission since 2007 to raise money to build wells. He recently returned home to Syracuse to raise more money to go back to Ariath and build a school. Before the wells were built women and young girls had to walk 5 to 6 hours to get water for drinking or cooking. They are shown here carrying water back to their village.

Syracuse, NY -- When Clement Kuek, a “Lost Boy” who fled Sudan during the civil war, came to America he was amazed at the stark difference between Syracuse and his home village of Ariath in South Sudan.

“There’s plenty of water and access to education here,” said Kuek, 33. “The situation in Ariath is horrible. My people are suffering and they need help.”

Kuek, who fled his homeland in 1992, recently went back to arrange the drilling of four water wells in three villages in South Sudan. He raised $24,500 from Central New Yorkers — including $10,000 by East Syracuse Minoa students — that paid for the wells.

Kuek came to Syracuse in 2004 from a refugee camp in Kenya. Kuek is one of the “Lost Boys,” which refers to the more than 20,000 children, most of them boys, who were separated from their families during Sudan’s civil war. The boys traveled together on foot, often with no adults, surviving bombs, malnutrition and animal attacks, to reach refugee camps in neighboring Ethiopia in 1987.

The “Lost Boys,” named after Peter Pan’s orphans, fled Ethiopia in 1992 after civil war there made it unsafe. They walked through Sudan, eventually finding safety at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. In 1999, the United Nations coordinated the relocation of about 3,600 Lost Boys to the United States.

Kuek told The Post-Standard in 2004 that he didn’t want to return to South Sudan until it was safe. In July 2011, South Sudan officially broke away from Sudan after five decades of civil wars, which claimed the lives of millions of people.

provided photoThis photo was taken the village of Ariath in South Sudan. This is a typical classroom. If it rained, school would be canceled. Clement Kuek is back in Syracuse after trip to Ariath, where he was raised. He built four wells in South Sudan with money raised by Central New Yorkers. His next goal is to raise enough money to go back and build a school and more wells.

Kuek said he now calls Syracuse his home, but he is determined to help his people in Ariath. After fundraising for four years he was able to go back to South Sudan in 2011 to build four wells.

Now, Kuek is back in Syracuse to raise more money to drill at least four more wells and to build a school.

“Women and girls would have to walk five or six hours to get water,” Kuek said. “Now there are two wells in Ariath.”

East Syracuse Minoa High School students launched the club, Students Taking Action Now in Darfur, or STAND, that raised the money for South Sudan.

ESM teacher Keith Ward, who advises the club, said the students are going to continue to raise money this coming school year to help Kuek in his efforts to build a school.
The students will need to raise about $100,000 for the school, which was destroyed more than seven years after the civil war in Sudan, Ward said.

“We’re committed to this project for the foreseeable future,” Ward said.
Kuek said he hopes he can get other school groups involved in building the schools and drilling more wells, which cost about $7,000 a piece to complete.

“I’m going to go around and talk to people about the situation that my people are in,” Kuek said.

Kuek said currently there is no school building in Ariath. Children attend classes under trees and sit on logs. If it rains there is no school, he said.

“Here, I sometimes see kids that refuse to go to school when they have the opportunity,” Kuek said. “The kids in my village don’t have the opportunity to go to school. I pray to God they get this opportunity.”

For more information on Clement Kuek’s projects in South Sudan, visit www.harss.org or contact 218-6992 or lualmakok@yahoo.com. Donations can be sent to Ariath Lost Boys of South Sudan c/o Vincent de Paul Church at 342 Vine St., Syracuse, NY 13203.